


History Is Happening

by Satya



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Lesbian!Peggy, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-10 00:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5562385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satya/pseuds/Satya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a short, happy piece about Peggy falling in love and finding understanding.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. But Will It Be Enough?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nobody Needs To Know](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5281808) by [selenedaydreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenedaydreams/pseuds/selenedaydreams). 



> This is a short, happy piece about Peggy falling in love and finding understanding.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy frets about coming out.

From the moment they were seated in the carriage, Peggy had begun to have second thoughts. Now, standing in a square teeming with King’s College students philosophizing predictably about issues with the colonial government, she felt sure that her sisters’ antics would result in their father locking her away in a tower.

Bad enough what she had confessed to him yesterday. Bad enough the strain her proclivity would put on their family name. But to directly disobey him, on top of all that? _For shame, Margaret,_ she chided herself.

“Like I said, you’re free to go,” Eliza muttered, blissfully unaware of the internal turmoil causing Peggy to be such a spoilsport.

Her annoyance at her younger sister was unable to persist, however, in the face of Angelica’s enthusiasm.

“Look around at the great minds, at the revolution in progress.” Angelica crooned. “We will soon have our moment, sisters, change is coming. Look around!” 

“Are you looking for me?” A gaggle of schoolboys approached, no doubt enticed by their recognition of the Schuyler sisters and their belief in the rumours about the eldest.

Peggy wrinkled her nose in disgust as Angelica flirtatiously engaged with their leader, a shrewd and well-spoken young man she faintly knew to be Princeton prodigy Aaron Burr.

While her elder sisters argued with the boys about Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson or some other Thomas, Peggy drifted off toward the notice board at the center of the square. Men, especially those so full of their own egos that they hardly needed conversation partners, could rarely hold her attention.

This trip downtown did not inspire her in the way it did the other two. Perhaps it was because Catherine was not here to ease her worry with a smile and a gentle nudge, or perhaps it was because she knew that all the change that had her family so excited would not improve her circumstances significantly. 

Women would not be free to love women.

Black women would not be seen as her equals in society.

And certainly no daughter of a respected member of the New York Assembly would be allowed to marry her servant, the daughter of a person her own family had enslaved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr at desiprincex if you want more Hamilton!


	2. Keeping Up Appearances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy deals with the consequences of her coming out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to keep this historically accurate (I mean, I tried not to /contradict/ history) but eh, I don't mind if it's unrealistic. I'm happy that it's happy. Enjoy :)

Peggy walked to the library with trepidation. She had not heard from her father since her confession three days ago. In fact, the only communication she had with either parent was the note on her bedstand this morning, Library. 1pm, in her mother’s loopy scrawl. Her hand hovered over the doorknob as she imagined what manner of punishment awaited her. She would be sent away. Or Catherine would be sent away. Or she would be married off to some strange man. Clearing these thoughts with a deep breath, she opened the door. 

The room, normally filled with the Churches arguing and several of her siblings running about and stealing each other’s reading, now held only three. Her mother and father sat on the duvet, faces grim, and Catherine stood beside them, a hollow smile covering her face. Peggy’s concerns had certainly occurred to her as well.

“There are some plans to discuss, dear, if you could sit.” Her mother’s tone made it clear that this was anything but a friendly suggestion. She gestured for both girls to sit, but they were not brave or foolish enough to sit together, instead choosing the armchairs opposite each other. “I understand you and your father had a very interesting talk recently?”

Not knowing how to respond, or what her mother really meant in place of “interesting,” Peggy chose to stare at the hands clasped in her lap. What she heard next forced her to look up.

“I understand.” Those were the actual words out of her mother’s mouth. “I’m not naïve enough to ignore the great women in history who have preferred the company of other women… However, they never fare well socially, and that’s something I cannot accept for my daughter.”

“Therefore,” her father cut in before Peggy could protest, “your mother and I have consulted with some friends of her family’s, in order to arrive at a solution that will make you happy while also allowing us to keep up appearances.”

This should not have shocked Peggy as much as it did. Her family had always been unconventional, despite their social standing. Not only was her father a revolutionary, but her mother’s closeness with a servant and former slave—to the extent of naming her eldest daughter after the woman!—and the younger Angelica’s political fierceness and elopement were often topics of less-than-polite conversation at social gatherings. However, the relationship between the elder Catherine and Angelica had never been of the nature to inspire gossip in the way that Peggy and Catherine’s already had. 

“Father, I thank you for your consideration, but I can’t imagine how I may be free to be with Catherine without bringing ridicule to our name.” Peggy finally managed to say.

“That is because you don’t know the people we do.” Her father responded glibly, before going on to explain.

Peggy was not the only young adult her parents knew who loved someone of her same gender. A certain young man from the prestigious Van Rensselaer family, third of his name and slated to inherit a grand manor and a grander political and military legacy, had fallen in love with another young man. Stephen and Killian, it seemed, were determined to be involved against all odds, and so his father had confided in Peggy’s mother the need to find a wife who would accept this arrangement. 

It was to the immense benefit of both houses that this marriage, which seemed for all the world to be a perfect match in wits and wealth, would allow both couples to proceed to live as they desired, in a comfortable house large enough to cover their lie.

After a visit to the Van Rensselaer mansion that weekend, it was decided. In a year’s time, Margaret Schuyler would be wed to Stephen van Rensselaer III, and then she and Catherine would move into his house, along with Killian. Both outsiders and the extended family would find it perfectly natural that the close friend and favorite servant of the newlyweds accompanied them, and a son produced soon after would quiet any suspicions that may still arise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regular updates what? Haha I don't feel too bad because, since I posted chapter 1, I've taken the MCAT and gotten a job! I also have the third and final chapter written, so expect that very soon. Find me on tumblr at desiprincex if you want more Hamilton!


	3. Every Type of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy finds comfort with family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, friends, the third and final chapter. Enjoy!

While their parents took care of the wedding plans, Peggy and Stephen felt comfortable sharing the truth with their siblings; however, there was still the matter of the in-laws. Her brothers had already left home with their wives, who loved and trusted Peggy and could be expected to believe whatever story was told to them. John was busy planning his trip to England, and never paid much mind to his sisters-in-law anyway, and so convincing him of the authenticity of the marriage would be no trouble.

Alexander was an issue.

From the moment Angelica conversed with him at the fateful winter’s ball, the three sisters knew that his wit coupled with his lack of restraint made for a character to be careful of. If he learned the truth, or had an inkling of Peggy’s feelings for Catherine, there was no anticipating his response.

That is why Peggy sat rigid, focusing on not trembling while picking up her teacup, as Alex and Eliza detailed all the adorable things baby Philip had done that week. She sat next to her sister, who was practically leaning off the edge of the sofa to be closer to her husband and gesture enthusiastically at her father. Catherine hovered at the edge of the room, ready to clear the tea set or bring more biscuits. 

Peggy made the mistake of glancing at her for comfort. As the smile she received filled her with the courage to weather Alexander’s visit for a bit longer, she noticed him watching her expression closely. She hurriedly excused herself from the room, walking into the hallway and taking deep breaths.

She heard a door open behind her and, assuming Catherine had followed, said “He saw.”

“What exactly do you believe I saw?”

Peggy whirled to face Alexander, panicking too thoroughly to come up with an adequate explanation. Why couldn’t Catherine be here to cover for her? Why didn’t her parents advise her what to tell this particularly persistent family member?

“It’s alright,” Alex said, while Peggy prepared to defend her love for her fiancé and her entirely platonic relationship with this servant. “I know what it’s like.”

She hadn’t been prepared for that.

“I know how it hurts, the sneaking around. Never letting your true feelings show on your face. Telling so many lies that you lose track of who can know the truth. Not daring to show affection in front of anyone. But you shouldn’t have to hide who you are from your family.”

“How…how do you know what I’m feeling so well?” Peggy asked, feeling a glimmer of hope.

A sad smile played on Alex’s face as he turned back to the door leading to the parlor, from which Eliza’s excited babble could still be heard. “Your sister was not my first love. I understand being so close to someone that you feel every type of love at once, despite what you know you should feel. My best friend… Well, that doesn’t matter now. Of course, I am your sister’s now, and I will honor our love by not ruminating on past relationships. On what could never be.”

Alex placed a hand on Peggy’s shoulder, and they shared a strained smile, years of shame and a new hope of understanding mixing on their faces. 

When the two returned to the parlor, Eliza pretended to be cross with them. “My dear husband, you mustn’t harass my sisters in dark corners.”

“My dear Eliza, perhaps your sisters trust me more than you know. Miss Peggy may have wished to confide something in me.” To finish this telling statement, Alex winked in Peggy’s direction.

No longer fearing being open at home, she leaned back into the couch and laughed, motioning for Catherine to join her.


End file.
